Experiences with Rental Car?

[Kirbie]

Hello!

I am looking at Rental Cars for an April 2018 trip. We are thinking of renting a car for one day to drive up to WB Studios and USH, as well as dinner at Tam O'Shanter in the evening.

I am looking at rental car prices for the day, and Alamo is quoting $75 for the day, National is quoting $71 for the day, and Enterprise is quoting $35 for the day.

Do these prices seem accurate? If so, why is Enterprise half the amount of the others? Does anyone have any experience renting cars from any of these three companies, whether in SoCal or other areas?

Thanks!!

 

[bumbershoot]

They all are under the same main company, FYI. Enterprise is the less fancy arm of the company.

If you book this early, be sure it's a cancellable booking. That means booking it without prepaying (unless the terms and conditions say you can get a refund if you cancel) through the rental company's website. No expedia etc unless it's an absolutely screaming deal and you either won't cancel the trip OR have 3rd party trip insurance that you can add the nonrefundable fee to.

Then as time goes on keep on checking! Sometimes prices go up, sometimes they go down, sometimes both.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Rental car pricing varies wildly with supply and demand...so shopping around is your best bet. Enterprise is one of the majors...as are National and Alamo, so if they have the best deal go for it. Sometimes the rates will still go up, sometimes down but $35 will be a hard rate to beat.

My biggest beef with Enterprise is that they do not fill up the gas tanks for the next rental...so you may get a car with a 1/4 tank then have to guess how much to put in or how much you used to return with the same amount. That drives me frigging bonkers rather than just returning the car full when done.

 

[RynB11]

Also, make sure you know which location you're renting from. For example, you might see a different rate because the Enterprise isn't an airport location or vice versa. So you'd have to make appropriate arrangements to get to that location.

 

[bcla]

They all are under the same main company, FYI. Enterprise is the less fancy arm of the company.

If you book this early, be sure it's a cancellable booking. That means booking it without prepaying (unless the terms and conditions say you can get a refund if you cancel) through the rental company's website. No expedia etc unless it's an absolutely screaming deal and you either won't cancel the trip OR have 3rd party trip insurance that you can add the nonrefundable fee to.

Then as time goes on keep on checking! Sometimes prices go up, sometimes they go down, sometimes both.

I don't have any problem booking with Expedia or even Priceline as long as you know the name of the company and don't leave a credit card number.

I've never booked a car rental where I was asked for a credit card while booking. As long as no credit card is used to secure, it almost always possible to cancel or even walk away from the rental. I've actually walked up to the desk and said I didn't want it. The clerk said fine, let me see the reservation, and I'll take care of it. I've also shown up late and asked if I could cancel. I was told it was too late to cancel but there was nothing that could be done. I also walked away from it without any consequences.

Once I was checking for rentals at SNA and I saw the price going lower and lower on Priceline for Enterprise. At one time I actually had three reservations active at the same time, including one "iPhone special". I cancelled all but one. I think there was a slight risk that they could have cancelled all of them as an "impossible" multiple booking.

 

[tarheelalum]

If you are a member of Costco, try to book the car through Costco Travel. They have very good rates. Also consider hotwire.com. They sometimes have great rates. And I almost forgot, go to kayak.com so you can check a bunch of different rates. You can find fantastic deals through them sometimes.